2010年01月05日 BFFs

“My BFF Blogged About Me”
I was reading the above comment on Facebook the other day. And I wanted to talk about all the “uncountable” BFFs Cliff and I met while he visited me in Japan. Susanna don’t get jealous. ;P

First off there’s ME! Part of the reason Cliff even came to Tokyo. This is me in a small park near my house on our way to eat kaiten sushi.

The fake Santa we met at Shibya Station. He loved us and asked us to be in a keitai pic with him. Ah-mazing!

Some Harajuku girls we met outside Yoyogi koen in Harajuku (our new BFFs). These girls were nice enough to let us take their picture. But some other Harajuku girls were like we don’t want a picture. Two minutes later they let some European couple take their picture! THOSE girls were cunty!

Cliff’s true BFF. The mirror. We stopped in Ubisu Station to transfer. This mirror was calling to Cliff from the ticket gate. Cliff thinks his left leg is cunty in this shot… I have to agree. ^^

Cliff met my friend Ginny and we went to this cute café in Omotesando called Unmarble. Definitely worth a visit, the ambiance was quite nice. During Christmas, Omotesando is lit up with beautiful lights.

Amongst other supposed BFFs include the bartender at a bar in Shinjuku and Cliff’s Tokyo love who will remain nameless because of the unpleasantness. Though it did make for an interesting story. La-La-Lalala! Right Cliff. ;P

2010年01月03日 Fashion Eyes

Winter Break
This is my first blog of the New Year! Happy 2010! Everyone is still home for the holidays. *sad face* However, with everyone’s departure I have a greater appreciation for my friends and family and how important they are to me. I will be very happy when everyone comes back to Japan.

Cliff’s Visit
Lucky for me my good friend Cliff came to Tokyo to visit me over the break so it wasn’t so lonely. Though he did ditch me on New Years, which is a story not for this blog.

Cliff arrives at Nippori Station. Coming from the airport he had already started trouble by pressing the emergency button stopping the Keisei line train; mistaking it for the button to open the door between cars. Also, how BIG is that bag, we were getting stares! LOL

Cliff’s visit opened my eyes again to Tokyo. When I first came to Japan I was in awe of everything. But living here for 2 years I became accustom to everything. His visit mainly was spent shopping and checking out shops, designer labels, boutiques and fashion in general. Something I would normally never do. But it helped me see Tokyo in a new light.

Some Fashion Destination Highlights
The majority of our time was spent in Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku. Cliff tells me he really enjoyed these stores (to name a few).

Opening Ceremony
Restir
Comme des Garçons

Inside Opening Ceremony in Shibuya. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, but Cliff did anyways.

Cliff with a Opening Ceremony mannequin on the first floor of the 8 floor store.

Restir in Roppongi Midtown. Cliff was this close to buying a $600 dollar necklace. Mind you it was half off.

I swear I think he spend about $1000CAD on shopping alone! The second day here he dropped like $700! Shopping with him is really funny. I’ve never seen a credit card be swiped so many times! But coming to Tokyo you shouldn’t rely on your credit card as this is a cashed based society.

I think my favorite part of his visit was when we visited this jewelry store in Parco and he spotted these innovative rings. The shop staff found him to be an outrageous character… especially when he tried on this huge zirconia and tried to slap it in my face to test it out!

The infamous ring he tried to slap me with.  The next day he dropped it on the ground and the zirconia got loose. Two days later, he went back to the store and exchange it for a black diamond zirconia plus one more ring. LOL Cliff, you are ah-mazing!

That’s it for now. Part 2 to come.

2009年12月19日 This is How I Look When My Kids Draw Me

見て、見て！！！
I get a kick out of when my kids draw me. If you draw me on your next assignment you might just get extra stickers! LOL

This is how Justin-sensei looks as a blonde!

My kids can draw pretty well! This is from one of my Grade 3 kids.
I look so happy!

2009年12月11日 Waiting For My Cash Card

Me Want Food!
I realize I spend a hell of a lot on food. After I canceled my credit and cash card I had to ask Andrew for 10,000 yen (about $100) to last me the week until my new validated cash card arrived. It’s not but 5 days into the week and I’m already down to 500 yen!

But to my defense, I had to pay the school lunch fee of 3700 yen this week as well. But regardless of that, I can stand to better manage my food budget.

A few weeks back I managed to spend about 100-200 yen a day and be content in a non-poverish way. I even lost 10 pounds! But that was by choice and not because I was over budgeting, just to be clear.

2009年12月08日 Karaoke & Head Stealing

Karaoke Escapades
Sunday night was spent eating and drinking with friends. We ended up heading out to sing karaoke towards the end. In Japan, when you got to karaoke many people have a favorite song to sing which best shows off their singing ability. This is called their juhachiban. Apparently my juhachiban is Disney’s Aladdin – Friend Like Me. I guess I have an animated voice.

I think this is my angry face.

Ariel & I in serenading mode.

We were kind of nuts and I’m sure I will have to untag a bunch of pictures and videos on Facebook. So nuts that after karaoke I tripped over a bag full of heads. Head used for practice cuts at a salon, which were taken back with Andrew and Ginny for photo op purposes and other crazy shenanigans. The night ended off quite random. I swear I couldn’t stop laughing. They actually took those used practice heads home!

Being stalkerazzied in ‘baba.

A cell phone shot of the plastic heads! I think they’re on display now at Andrew & Ben’s place. :P

2009年12月07日 Losing Your Wallet in Japan

Nakushimashita!
I was so mad! All I wanted to do was get some food for dinner. So I put my wallet in my pocket and rode my bike to the convenience store. When I got there I realized my wallet was gone… LOST! I mean, it’s only a 2 minute bike ride to the store, maybe it fell out my pocket or perhaps I had left it had home without realizing. I retraced my footsteps (in the rain mind you) without success.

I decided to go to the koban (police box) to report it lost in hopes that someone might drop it off. It was a fun experience despite the situation because I got to use my Japanese communication ability to explain to the officer my situations and describe the wallet and its contents. In the process I even learned a few new words. I was really proud I could get my point across.

I canceled my credit cards and my cash card to be safe. About an hour after doing that the police called me and told me someone dropped of my wallet. I was relieved, but the timing was off. I wish I didn’t cancel my shit so quickly, but better to be safe than sorry.

This is not my wallet.

Now I have to wait for my new cash card and for my parents to send my reissued credit cards to me. The situation was a little mendoukusai, but that life. I’m glad to see that there are still good people in the world. Luckily for me wallets have a high success rate of showing up and being returned to their owners without loss in Japan.

And I’m not gonna lie. I was a little excited at the opportunity to buy a new wallet. :P

2009年11月30日 Biking to Tokyo

Biking
I totally forgot to post this. I was waiting for my friend Ginny to send me pics, but she didn’t. A blog can be boring without visuals I think.

Anyways, I had this idea that I wanted to ride my bike from my home in Saitama to Ikebukuro in Tokyo. By train it takes about 30 minutes, but I was sure I could ride my bike there in a decent amount of time.

I told Andrew about the plan one weekend and told him I would meet him in Ikebukuro. It was kind of fun riding down there because I got to explore the city away from the train line. I managed to reach my destination in under 2 hours. I had to stop a bunch of times to make sure I was going the right way. ^^ Japanese streets are not always labeled well.

We had dinner and Ginny joined us too for some okonomiyaki. The dinner was my reward so-to-speak. When it was time to head back home I managed to do it in about 70 minutes. I pat myself on the back for not getting lost!

In the end, I stole this pic from Ginny’s Facebook. I look gross from cycling.

2009年11月28日 Elementary Marathon

School Marathon
My kids at my elementary school had their marathon race in the park somewhere near the Urawa-Kawaguchi city line. It was mad cold and it started to rain towards the end, but the day was success. I wish I could have ran more, but my back had been acting up again!

I was really surprised to see how fast some of the kids could run! All the kids were training during recess for weeks. I was so proud of them. They looked so tired after completing the marathon. Good job guys!
 

The kids in action.

Some of the kids getting ready to run.

The girls jumping up & down to keep warm.

In action and crossing the finish line.

2009年11月27日 Halitosis

This is a public service announcement:
I’m not gonna lie! Everyone at work today (and most days) your breath smells like ass! Moldy ass! Coffee breath is so nasty! Some people smell like they don’t even brush their teeth at all! Can someone say mint please! Gawd!

I have provided an instructional video for those who are unaware of their bad breath status. Please take notes. In the meantime, invest in mints, mouthwashes, anything to erase the stank from your mouths. That is all.

 

2009年11月25日 DS Akiba Nerds

Akiba Crowd
I was shopping around Yodabashi Camera when came across this (what I like to call) otaku crowd just to the side of the main entrance of huge electronics store.

Turns out they were all playing a wireless demo for the Nintendo DS game Dragon Quest (I think). But which one I can’t be sure as I don’t follow the latest game releases. I’m purely judging by what I gauged while watching them and anything I say is probably suspect. I would make a terrible journalist! :P But anyways, I bet many of them must have been standing their all day!

Why are some Akiba nerds so strange?

Everyone playing their Nintendo DS’s for hours!